Samsung has apparently set up a patent shop, Intellectual Keystone Technology (IKT), down in Washington, D.C., at the princely sum of $25 million. The company will be in charge of all patent-related issues around the company's groundbreaking display technology, but also has been tasked to further strengthen Samsung's portfolio in the field, as indicated by a recent purchase of former Seiko Epson patents, which have something to do with LCD and OLED tech.

IKT is a Samsung Display subsidiary, and indicates greater focus on screen IP, after the ongoing OLED display kerfuffle with LG. The department's spokesperson noted: “Patents are a good source of innovation and we also need to protect our intellectual property by strengthening our patent-related business”.

Created in March, the company bears the rights over some 123 patents, ranging from the mundane to the futuristic. “IKT will be tasked to find out which patents are helpful and valued for Samsung,” mentioned an industry insider. Patents are turning into big revenue streams in the tech world lately, so that might be one of the goals for setting up the patent shop. The other might be to avoid slips like LG eventually coming out with the first flexible OLED phone before Samsung.

Congratulations. You just used something that has been said in 90% of the board meetings worldwide in relation to their own products and competitors. Once a company comes out with a new products, one of two things happens. Either someone reckons that he could do the same thing only better and starts their own company, or a current rival sees some of their customer base possibly defecting for the new products and wants one of their own to counter it.

Sony was one of if not the first to come out with a personal portable music player. Everyone else just copied their idea, shameful! Ford started a car demographic aimed at kids for the first time in their Mustang, and not long after we saw Chevy, Pontiac, Dodge, Plymouth, and eveb AMC come out with "copycats", detestable!

It's not copying per se if you as a company try to get a larger share of the consumer pie by bringing a competing product to market. And it makes the most sense to offer something similar to what your competitor is offering, after all it is selling for a reason. Notice I said similar. While even the original Galaxy S is similar to the iPhone, it's not a copy. If the industry used the same template and eliminated companies who were close to eachother in what they offered, we'd have probably 1/10 the amount of companies in the world compared to what we have know.

Apple is right to protect any actual technology it develops. But that's not what Apple sues over. They sue over shapes. They sue over elements incorporated into their products that they copied from others. And they sue over things that aren't the same as what they do, but are in any way similar, using over broad interpretations like, "...a tap is just a zero length swipe."

I don't know what Samsung are going to do with this patent office. Maybe it's purely defensive, for leverage against Apple. Maybe they'll be just like Apple and start suing to stifle competition and innovation. We will have to wait and see.

Apple can't even came up their their own names: Apple, iPad, iPhone, iPod, iBook. You should look at the 2006 Samsung SGH-Z610. Apple stole the horizon earpiece and bottom circle button designs from Samsung.

"The company will be in charge of all patent-related issues around the company's groundbreaking display technology.."

What groundbreaking display technology, exactly? Last time I checked, Samsung was still not able to bring RGB in high density amoleds and was using weird pixel arrangements to compensate for that. None of the other companies have been able to do that, though.

Nokia's CBD amoleds are brighter - and have better sunlight legibility and have better refresh rate.

"They also mentioned how Samsung has "a record of getting orders for next-gen components, then canceling the orders. And then they show up in a Samsung phone. When you see a Samsung (certain specialized new design for) OLED phone as you surely will, you are looking at something that was stolen from Nokia."

Quoting GSMArena:
"The display on the Nokia Lumia 925 is a 4.5" AMOLED of WXGA resolution (768 x 1280), which is the maximum supported by the OS at the moment. The display has 332ppi pixel density and its matrix has a PenTile arrangement."

Not that it matters cause at 323 dpi it's not that important if it's pentile or not, but the screen is made by Samsung...

Agreed. S4 has the best OLED. But we're arguing about technologies, not specific phones. Nokia's hardware is limited right now by WP and was previously by Symbian. 808's has best sunlight legibility but Symbian only supported 640 x360. 928/925 have brighter displays and better refresh rate (pretty much equal in all other areas) but again, only 1280x768 supported by WP.

Now, I realise that saying is easier than doing, but if WP allowed it, wouldn't Nokia combine all the above properties and make a display finally superior than S4 in some aspects and equal in other?

At the very least, when WP allows it, Nokia will have a display atleast as good as S4's. Which is why it's hard to see something "groundbreaking" about Samsung's AMOLED.

Yes, Nokia could make a slightly superior display, but only by tweaking Samsung's panel, since other manufacturers (AUO, JDI) are not ready to mass produce yet. In this context, I think it's fair to credit Samsung for "groundbreaking" tech when discussing OLEDs - think about last year, when the Galaxy S3's display lost to its LCD competitors. This year, AMOLED is much more competitive than ever before, which takes us a step closer to making use of OLED's superior potential compared to LCD, even though current LCDs still offer some advantages.

Now, when you talk about sunlight legibility and brightness, that's Nokia doing what they believe is the best trade-off to the end user. A polarizing filter will reduce viewing angles, but increase sunlight legibility. Higher brightness does the same, but at the cost of reducing battery life and blue subpixel lifetime - Nokia is well aware of this, that's why they include a separate "high brightness mode" - they don't want you to have it ramped up too often.

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